But the killer was when Streep then noted that one “performance” stood out this year: that of Donald Trump when he publicly mocked The New York Times‘ Serge Kovaleski, a disabled reporter.

“There was nothing good about it, but it did its job. It kind of broke my heart when I saw it, and I still can’t get it out my head because it wasn’t in a movie; it was in real life. That instinct to humiliate when it’s modeled by someone in a public platform, it filters down into everyone’s life because it gives permission for others to do the same.

Disrespect invites disrespect, violence incites violence. When the powerful use their position to bully others, we all lose.“

She then called for the press to stand up to Trump —

“We need the principled press to hold power to account, to call them on the carpet for every outrage … We’re going to need them going forward and they’re going to need us to safeguard the truth.“